Generally this invention relates to the field of areaways, the enclosures for basement windows. More specifically, the invention relates to modular areaway escape systems. The invention concerns improvements to areaway designs which allow for simple assembly and replacement of sections. These improvements make the present areaway system useful and appealing to residential and commercial users.
For more than a century the technique of allowing light in through a basement window has existed in order to make the space more desirable and made it meet other requirements. In large part the technique has been accomplished through the use of a monolithic areaway to surround the bottom and sides of the basement window to hold earth away from the window so that light can be admitted. An early effort in this regard is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 300,654 to Smith for an "area window protector" first patented in 1884. Many other areaway designs and improvements have been patented since that date. In almost every one of these designs, the focus has been to provide a design which admits light and which excludes earth. The latter of these goals has been met with varying degrees of success. Often elaborate designs have been proposed, including some which are formed as an integral part of the foundation surrounding the basement window. Perhaps because of this focus designers of areaway systems have failed to see the value of a modular design with independent sections. Even with the most elaborate designs, none have addressed the need for making a system which may be assembled "on-site" or the need for a system which allows damaged or worn sections to be replaced.
In recent years it has been discovered that the areaway was also useful as an escape avenue in the event of fire or some other catastrophe U.S. Pat. No. 3,999,334 to Webb describes an areaway entitled "Webb Basement Window Escape." Although not a true areaway but an extension of basement space beyond the foundation wall, this 1976 patent appears to be the first to recognize that the basement window could be useful as a means of escape. Although--with the benefit of hindsight--it may at first glance appear surprising that it took almost 92 years to improve a product similar to an areaway to allow it to become a means of escape, this delay makes sense when it is understood that those skilled in the art of areaway construction tended to improve existing designs in small degrees rather than to freshly innovate to overcome undesirable limitations. This is why until U.S. Pat. No. 4,876,833 to the inventors of the present invention the seemingly simple combination of allowing for an escape system and utilizing the space within the areaway for aesthetic and practical purposes has not been proposed. The present invention accomplishes this goal as well. Those skilled in the art were usually primarily practical people who sought to overcome one perceived problem rather than people who completely re-thought areaway systems.
The present invention focuses on the desirability to allow not only additional safety features to be incorporated within an areaway, but also to provide some designs which, rather than requiring complete installation of a new system when damage or wear begins to show allows replacement of just the damaged or worn sections. In addition to achieving these goals, embodiments of the present invention have been designed with features that accommodate the perspectives of not only the consumer, but also the supplier, the installer, and the manufacturer.
In addressing each of the various perspectives of those involved with the product from its manufacture through its replacement, various independent desires have been especially accommodated by the modular design. With respect to the consumer, the present invention allows for a cost effective areaway system by permitting replacement of less expensive sections. In addition, the design still avoids the difficulties of maintaining the space and providing for drainage inside the areaway as described in the Applicants' previous patent. With respect to both the supplier and the manufacturer, the design allows for a construction which is not only easily manufactured, but which allows individual sections to be nested together for shipping and storage. With respect to the installer, the design avoids any need to integrate the areaway with the foundation so that simple installation and, perhaps more commercially significant, simple replacement of components can be easily accomplished. In this fashion the design is adaptable to existing structures, and is especially suited for replacement of existing areaways. Prior to the present invention, no solution to these various goals was accomplished by any one areaway design.
Another key element of some embodiments of the present invention was the recognition that in earlier unitary bodied inventions retrofitting to existing mounts was sometimes difficult if widths differed greatly. The present invention permits a variety of widths to be accomplished by altering the manufactured dimensions of a minimum number of sections. Larger or smaller areaway systems could then be accomplished by the installer by replacing the key sections. This aspect presents a significant effort and cost savings to the consumer, installer and manufacturer. Attempts by those skilled in the art were simply inadequate because they focused on other problems in the art, or were willing to cope with the particular problems addressed by the present invention. The degree to which these seemingly simple recognitions are significant seems apparent when one considers that the present invention, although unexpectedly simple in achieving these goals and overcoming the limitations of the prior art, has not been available even though areaways have existed for over one hundred years.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,876,833, issued Oct. 31, 1989, to the same inventors is hereby incorporated by reference.